This is a new sequel to Karen’s first book, Through the Narrow Gate, after the first sequel, Beginning the World, flopped. Because, she says, she was “not truthful.” Perhaps Karen overcompensated on the “truthful” part this time around. The result is a brutally honest autobiography of a repeat failure. At one point, Karen despairs, “I was an ex-nun, a failed academic, mentally unstable, and now I could add epileptic to this dismal list. … Even God, for whom I had searched so long, is simply the product of a faulty brain, a neurological aberration.” Karen spent seven years as a nun in a Catholic convent, then tried to put God behind her and enter the secular world of London. Yet, God would never quite go away. God hung around in a love-hate relationship until Karen finally faced her demons, and found religion again … this time in writing about God. Faith, Karen learned, is not an intellectual assent but an act of will, a deliberate choice to believe. Believers (among whom Karen confesses multiple times she is no longer) cannot prove or disprove their doctrines, but must consciously decide to take them on trust. One of Karen’s shortcomings as a nun was that she could never connect with God through prayer. There was simply nobody on the other end. Many years later, she realized she was looking for God where he could not be found. Faith, she came to understand, is not about belief, but about practice. Religion, says Karen, is a “moral aesthetic,” an “ethical alchemy.” If you behave a certain way, you will be transformed. The myths and laws of religion are not true because they conform to some metaphysical, scientific, or historical reality but because they are life enhancing. You will not discover them to be true until you put them into practice in your own life, where they compel you to act in such a way as to bring out your own heroic potential. Faith, Karen now believes, should make you more human, not less. On the very last page, Karen looks down to find that, while she has climbed out of darkness, she has come full circle. The Spiral Staircase. “As I go up, step by step, I am turning, again, round and round, apparently covering little ground, but climbing upward, I hope, toward the light.” (read less)

This is a new sequel to Karen’s first book, Through the Narrow Gate, after the first sequel, Beginning the World, flopped. Because, she says, she was “not truthful.” Perhaps Karen overcompensated on the “truthful” part this time around. The result is a brutally honest autobiography of a repeat failure. At one point, Karen despairs, “I was an ex-nun, a failed academic, mentally unstable, (read more)

I have never read any of Karen Armstrong's books, but I have seen many references to her writings and have perused her books at the bookstore and found them interesting. I thought this might be a good book to begin with and I was not disappointed. She is an interesting woman who has opened herself and has shown all the darkest corners of her being in what I found to be a very matter-of-fact way. She certainly has enough baggage from a rather strange past, but I felt she was honest in dealing with her frustrations, her weaknesses, her mistakes, and her achievements. I do find her bitterness at the Catholic Church a bit much at times; surely there was someone in the convent or in her early Catholic life that was a positive influence. She can be a harsh judge of others, but I think she also judges herself harshly at times. The last chapters of Spiral Staircase are especially interesting and worthy of going back to reread. I find her explanation of the paradox of the absent God and as she says "a presence in my life" insightful. Her analogy of ascending a spiral staircase and her spiritual journey is so apt. Ms. Armstrong has done for me something that I do not have the time, skill, or intellect to do and that is to step back from the boundaries of a very traditional religious upbringing and take a much larger view of this unnameable force in our lives that we so innocently and ineffectually call God. I would also recommend The Seven Storey Mountain by the Trappist monk Thomas Merton (who is referred to in the last pages of Spiral Staircase). Thomas Merton's faith journey leads to the Catholic Church rather than away from it, but I believe the ultimate destination of both Merton and Armstrong are not that far from each other. (read less)

I have never read any of Karen Armstrong's books, but I have seen many references to her writings and have perused her books at the bookstore and found them interesting. I thought this might be a good book to begin with and I was not disappointed. She is an interesting woman who has opened herself and has shown all the darkest corners of her being in what I found to be a very matter-of-fact (read more)